“Party time! Excellent!”

- Wayne Campbell
(as played by Mike Myers)

As we all know, Teagan turned three. And because of this, she also had her third birthday party. It was sunny, hot, and as far as she was concerned, the best day there has ever been. Her dad set up not one, but TWO kiddy wading pools in the back yard, linked together by a Little Tyke’s sliding board. He also put out a tiny kiddy tent for the little girls to play in.

Seven of T’s friends were there, not counting those under the age of one, and two of them were actually three-year olds – which is amazing in and of itself. Daddy cooked on the grill, and there was much watermelon to be had. . .

Planning for T’s party started waaaaaaaaay back in, like, February or something. Her dad and I didn’t want to skip her party on account of Ro’s arrival (although I was sorely tempted), because we didn’t want T to have a reason to resent her new sister, and she’s old enough this year to know that birthdays = parties (plus we love her and like to make her happy :)). But I knew that once a new baby was introduced into the mix, time and money would fly out the window, and the party would get canceled – so we got a very early start.

We let T browse through about a million party themes online. All her faves were there: My little Pony, Blue’s Clues, Kai-Lan, Care-Bears, the Gabba gang, but to my surprise (and delight), T chose butterflies over a character.

T has been so excited about her butterfly birthday party for such a long time! When June finally got here, T couldn’t wait to get started. She worked very hard all month to make butterfly decorations for her party. She made so many pretty things – like the butterfly sun-catcher that we hung on our window (not pictured), and the (seemingly) hundreds of sparkly butterflies (out of cereal boxes cut by me) to hang from the trees in our back yard.

They looked so pretty dancing and twirling in the breeze! She also made several of these cute little butterfly critters with TP rolls and tissue paper;

they proved invaluable to us on party day, as we filled the tubes with small stones and used them to weigh down the napkins, plates, tablecloths, and whatever else wanted to float off every time the wind blew!

T was VERY adamant that she was to have a butterfly cake at her party. After hearing about the butterfly cake for months on end, so when I saw the Wilton butterfly cake pan on sale for cheap, I snatched it up! After she was in bed the night before, I enlisted the help of my husband and sister, and we baked and iced the cake (with chocolate twizzler antenna) and several dozen cupcakes to match;

The butterflies on the cupcakes were made with sour gummi fruit slices – two per bug – with chocolate icing piped down the center. The sugar on the ‘wings’ looked a bit like glitter once it got out into the heat. T didn’t see it until everyone else did at her party, and she was THRILLED!

Daddy lit the candles, and everyone sang – but the wind blew faster than Puff could puff, and blew them out first every time!

Gammy saved the day with her handy lighter – which T was able to extinguish three times in a row!

CUPCAKES FOR THE WIN!

Then it was present time! Three cheers for PRESENTS! T was tearin’ those sukkas up – right up until the goodie bags came out. . .

The bags were packed with all kinds of awesome stuff the girls, and they were handed out while T was opening her gifts. The idea was to distract them and give them something to do to keep them entertained and happy while the birthday girl was getting truckloads of cool stuff. It worked perfectly last year. . .

They got wearable butterfly wings (from the dollar store – how lucky!), butterfly hats, butterfly blow-outs, butterfly tattoos, butterfly lollipops, butterfly coloring books and sketchpads with butterfly crayons. There were teensy tiny sparkly books, and foam crowns with butterfly stickers to decorate with. . . It was a bag of girly butterfly bliss! “Adorable” doesn’t even come CLOSE to expressing how insanely cute they all looked flitting wildly about my backyard with their little purple wings on the sugar high of a century! (too bad they never flitted close enough together to get a picture of them all)

The only problem was that I used my personal and in-depth knowledge of my own little butterfly birthday girl when choosing the various fun prizes that went into each bag. . . So I shouldn’t have been surprised when all attempts at present opening fell to ME while SHE ran off with her goody bag ! Drat! Foiled again! Apparently the goody-bag trick that worked so well at her second birthday does not work on a grown woman of three, and so back to the drawing board before next year comes.

(image still from my video camera)

Once wings were donned and lollipops licked, it was back to the presents for my Super Puff girl. She got sooooo many awesome things! Thanks to all of you who came for being so amazingly generous to my little lady on her birthday!

(image still from my video camera)

She got arts and craft supplies out the wazoo, costumes for dress up, a sit-n’-spin, a battery-powered play-doh factory, piggy paints, a fishing game, garden tools, a butterfly garden, a gift certificate to Build a Bear, three Care-Bear movies, My Big Backyard magazine, a sit-n’0 bounce ball, much hello kitty girlish awesomeness, an easel, an off-the-hook sprinkler (which we set up for the girls to play in immediately), and loads of cash. . . and I KNOW I’m missing something. . . ! Talk about spoiled!

Oh! And Ro? I didn’t even have to worry about her, she was being so good! She was on her very best behavior, charming everyone and letting herself get passed from person to person. . .and screaming for mommy in-between turns. She really did exceptionally well, we were all super proud of her!